Allen Mandelbaum

The Divine Comedy is a narrative poem by Dante Alighieri that describes the author’s travels through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso). This trio of books, or canticas, is one example of the number three as a theme throughout the work. Each book consists of 33 cantos, which added to an introductory canto, totals 100. Each cantica follows a pattern of 9 phases plus 1 for a total of ten—9 circles of hell plus Lucifer,...